Monday 27 January 2014

Jan 27th Letter


Hola mi familia,

I am glad that everyone is found well and that everything is going well. The package is yet to arrive, I suspect sitting in the office or something like that. But its all good everything has been going fairly well lately. I suppose I am approaching 6 months out here, and it is all leaving far too quickly. Looking back I feel as though I have accomplished so little sometimes, but at the same time so much. 

Happy Chinese New Year! Feliz ano nuevo de China! I entirely forgot that was approaching very soon. I sort of forgot a lot of things. I am happy that everything went well and everyone put on some fat by eating too much. I used to be getting fatish, but now I workout. I still dont build muscle, but I feel better about myself at least and can do the most jumps on the jump rope. VICTORY! So remember to workout after having lots of fattening chinese foods. 

Im not sure I can even imagine 12 degrees right now. I feel like I would die in that temperature. I have to sleep with a blanket as it is right now. 

So yeah Elder Diaz is still in our house, also training. He shall remain in this area a long time, the members will probably get sick of him haha. But oh well, he is really cool and stuff so they really shouldnt get sick of him. The Elders from Buenos Aires are still in our house for now, but they are supposed to move out in two months apparently. The house is being built right now, the church put in the money to get it rolling. So, I might see the day our house becomes a 4 man house again.

We have interviews with the president tomorrow (my excitment knows no bounds) and that will be awesome. I guess haha (awesome to just see and talk with President). To report to him the status of our somewhat strange area haha. I discussed the whole starting over again and again with all the people and having to find so many new ones with zone leaders, and they related something cool. They said ¨well, the church and the priesthood have been restored and taken from the earth many, many times and every time the prophet had to start all over again. So, dont worry it will all work out!¨ So I suppose that is supposed to be us, starting the church back up again. Our old investigators are stagnating, and new ones prove difficult to keep, but we work with them. Elder Herrmann gave his first ever priesthood blessing a few days ago, he did the anointing. Priesthood blessings are really cool. The guy was fine the next day we saw him, walking around and stuff. Elder Diaz had once given a blessing where the guy was better right away, they actually saw the bulging on his chest decrease and the guy was able to speak again. Wow pretty cool stuff.

Even though we are still a little deabilitated and such, we are finding really cool people to teach. Tough people to teach, with super strong catholic or evangelical roots. And people with just general catholic or protestant roots. Its weird to always teach people who have knowledge about God and lots of people who read the bible. Sometimes its difficult, because people believe its fine to interpret the bible how you want and stay in your own established ways. Its a really big barrier with people. The other churches really just invite people to join them and worship, without major change unless they are breaking laws or commandments or something like that. As the church of Jesus Christ, our true invitation is really unique. To actually change one´s life entirely, and not just join a church but really become a disciple of Christ and recieve of the Spirit. After reading about the Apostoles of Jesus, I have really seen the importance of the Spirit and how when people recieve of it and it changes them, its something amazing. The apostoles baptized thousands of people in just one meeting, because those who spoke with them were truly touched by the Spirit. The apostoles were truly ordained and consecrated their lives in the service, and for that they achieved great success. I have seen the true touch of the Spirit only a few times in the mission, and sometimes people really ignore its promptings. It was a priviledge to watch a few feel it, see one truly understand and take the steps to change entirely. Yet I wish to have been as the apsotoles of old. With their grandeur. Their witness. It is really cool to walk as they walked and be fishers of men. Of course, a fisherman always has bad days, sometimes the storms rock the ship but luckily The Master is with them and he speaks gently to the seas ¨Peace, Be Still¨. I have really seen such things happen, and have learned a lot about charity and love. I hope people here can start understanding that too, instead of just avoiding condemnation. The country fears God, but Im not sure if they truly love Him. I have met many who do, but still lean on their own understanding. I hope they can come to learn of God in his manner.

Well, that is my spiel I guess. We had a cool activity where we played sports and stuff. Watched a movie with investigators. Weird thing in the mission is that the Americans and the Latins sort of split up during activities and only really hang around each other. Being neither, I sort of have to drift between both. I really like speaking spanish with the latins, but there are a few things I still dont understand especially with their jokes and such. I wish everyone kind of hung out together, but segregation is pretty common with only a few exceptions. We ate awesome food (empanadas) that the Hermanas from our neighbouring zone made. Cool times had by all!

Dont worry about me and stuff I am doing great and I hope to be able to send pictures some time and also be a better missionary and work harder and get some fruits to grow on this tree! I suppose we have to dig more or something! It is really hard to keep starting over, like growing a tree that keeps dying. But people are still really open, everyone wants to talk and the Spirit has touched a few. Hopefully enough that they change their lives. This one dude who is making us some clothing (I wanted a cool pair of handmade pants) we are also teaching is super funny. He is kind of fat, but he always lets us in his house for some reason and hopefully he read the pamphlet (if not, Im not paying him for pants hahahahahahaha). I hope someone one of these days truly prays to God like Javier did, even if they take more time and such, I hope they can arrive at knowing, it really takes some work and acceptance of God´s will. I suppose I need to work on acceptance of God´s will as well. 

Know my prayers are always with you all, and with those at home as well. Please remember my companion sometimes. I hope Dad´s leg gets better, and that Chinese New Year was a great time together with family, and that Gon gon made an appearance in Spirit.

I am glad that everyday gets better with all of you, remember I always love you all!

With all my love as always,
Elder Sullivan

PS Never leave food out too long. It grows nasty fungus that smells bad and you have to waste a lot of bleach.
PSS Getting rained on is kind of cool in this country


Monday 20 January 2014

Jan 20th Letter

Hola!

I hope everything is really great, it sounds like everyone is doing pretty good and everything! Hopefully it continues like so! So about those pictures Dad sent, I like a lot of them, it would be nice to have a few hardcopy, so maybe the next time you send something, I have most of the ones from the farewell, but the pyramid and with Ricky would be cool and all the other pictures. I may need another copy of a full family picture (dont like, spend money just to send stuff though haha) because the one I have is in my slowly disintegrating book of mormon. But that would be super cool!

Thanks for all the birthday wishes and everything! Sorry I wasnt around to celebrate (and I didnt really celebrate much haha, I didnt even eat very well), but I´m glad you still had a good time and ate with missionaries anyway! Um, I havent recieved the package yet but I did see a deduction in my apoyo (my money) so that means it is probably in the office (dont worry, the deduction is super small). But that music at christmas has been an absolute hit amongst everyone! And I love the miso soup so much! The candies had these cool Japanese comics on them that I kept, look awesome but I cant read them! They need to be in spanish!

So this was my first week of training my new companion, Elder Herrmann from Orem, Utah! He is a really cool guy, very chill and excited to be on the mission. We drink herbal tea, have similar interests and ideals and he loves taking photos (something I dont haha sorry). He is learning things nice and quick and has an excellent american accent and everything, so we shall be working the spanish (YES I LOVE SPANISH HAHAHAHAHA). It was cool to meet with him and stuff and talk a little. He is a hipster haha. Unfortunately, he sprained his ankle a bit (I know how that feels) so we havent worked for a few days in the field. We are working again which is great, but the ankle wont recover fully for apparently 8 weeks or something, so we will have to be careful walking and slower and he has to wear a brace. Oh well. He has this nasty injury and thing that is a lot like Dad´s injuries to his legs (like, one leg is shorter than the other, walking funny, ankle problems, wow it sounds like our family or something. By the way dad, take care of yourself, dont be injuring yourself on the quad!) So, it appears that I shall forever have the curse of health. But haha, me no scare! It turned out to be nice to be able to talk with Elder Herrmann a lot and study for extended time and such and learn about each other a lot. It was cool to learn so much and we at least got closer. Hopefully we can have some missionary experiences, although the first two days were pretty cool! Had some investigators really pray and come to know the book of mormon is true through their own experience! Taught them to recognize that the peace and love they felt and excitment about the book was because the spirit was telling them it was true. A really cool lesson. Now they have to be taught and follow the commandments to recieve of the Spirit. This will be their challenge. They are a couple of younger men, so they easily pray and read and accept the message and recieve manifestation of the Spirit, but to really recieve the Atonement, that requires change and difference. We shall see about them. Of course, we are kind of rebooting with everyone and having to find new people everywhere since the down time sick and with only two Elders and such has really hurt the area. I really hope we can get it rolling again, especially with all I have learned in the last transfer. Hopefully I can teach my companion all these things too. He seems to be learning it really well, I guess I dont teach horribly.

Thank you always for your prayers, it truly has helped, and we are finding right now a lot of people through the book of mormon. It really was inspiration that West Mission has had all the missionaries carry the book in their hands. People constantly ask about it. It truly is the way to find the truth of the church, and consistency in reading it proves that one has faith and the spirit has truly manifested in them. We found one awesome lady who read the whole pamphlet right away and accepted a baptism invitation and everything! (we have to find her again now... sigh). Well, it has been pretty cool and everything I hope everything is cool with you guys still. Keep reading the book of mormon (you know the whole promise of like the twelve tribes thing? Totally true, the latin people are mostly descendants of like lamanites so like Lehi´s descendants so they have visions and dreams all the time. Kind of cool). The book of mormon will really teach us to come to Christ and be perfected in him. His invitation is always ¨Follow thou me¨, and if we heed the call, he truly will perfect us. Hopefully I can start doing this more in my life, and you guys can too!

Thanks for being my family, you always have my prayers, and they are truly answered in your well being. Never give up, discouragement is a tool of the devil (weird to use that word, seeing as it is a bad word in this country).

Gracias!
Con todo mi amor, les quiero tanto
Elder Sullivan

PS My area is found on this large street called 27 de Febrero, where it crosses a street called Calle México. Thats where we are. 

Friday 17 January 2014

Jan 13th Post

Hola mi FAMILIA! Que tal?

I am glad to hear that everything is very well with all of you. Sorry you had to return from the land of the sun and warmth back to the frigid wastelands of Canada. It is still a hard thing to imagine here. The weather is still a little cooler, but is slowly heating back up and soon it will be the summer and we will all suffer. (cooler meaning: we dont sweat so bad that we have salt stains on pants and shirts.) People here have a REALLY hard time imagining Canada. A place where everyone has heaters. Where the ground freezes and snow falls for 8 months. It is really hard for them, since the only weather changes here are rain, sun and hurricanes. Everyday is kind of the same, you just try to guess when the rain might come haha. So life continues somewhat to an extent.

So yes it is transfers week. And Elder Diaz and I are remaining in the area, but splitting up with other companions. And.... We are both training! Felicidad, I guess! Elder Diaz will be racking up 9 and a bit months in this area if he completes the training of another Elder, and I will be getting around 7 and a half months. Well, at least the house is really nice and our neighbours are nice and the area is too dangerous (although, there are some sketchy places haha). But all is well. So my image of the Dominican is still just one little place. This change will be good though, as Elder Diaz and I have great plans for the revitilzation of Ivan Guzman by working with the ward and having real conversion instead of just baptsims, as that seems to be what happened a lot in the past. We have even decided to divide the area (which is a really big step for our "organization"). The new year is finally looking brighter and somewhat better and I hope we can really achieve great things in an area that has really suffered.(Another sad thing, I dont get to see Elder Diaz's investigators anymore. :(. I really liked them they were super cool. And they had nice bathrooms I could use in their somewhat quiet houses.)

Apparently hitting 6 months is coming up for me, so I am a real missionary now, having pooped my pants and assorted other historical milestones. But I really learned something profound by working with Elder Diaz. We really discovered the importance of the Spirit, how a lesson truly works and our real purpose as missionaries. We dont necessarily change lives, but our message and our work does. There is a form and pattern to a lesson that must be observed so carefully as to not disrupt the Spirit. It is a very subtle touch that I have learned so much about. How delicate everything is. People dont change their lives just because they have knowledge. We have plenty of investigators with all the knowledge they will ever need about salvation, but they lack something very important: the Spirit. I didnt really realize what the gift and influence of the Spirit is before now. But now I really feel some sort of presence all the time. Where we should go, what we should do and a great love for everyone. I like to imagine all the people I have met here all together in a room dressed in white, I suppose the Celestial room of the temple here in Santo Domingo. I greet everyone of them at the door, and see in them the joy of having finally entered the kingdom of God. Then we all get to sit down for a bit. And then I have to go back to work. It has been some sort of grand priviledge to work here and truly find the Spirit. I hope it truly impacts the lives of the people we have taught, but at least it has changed mine. I really have lost the focus on just obtaining numbers, as the numbers are people that all need their own time, however much that may be.

Anyway, sorry for rambling. I just feel really glad to have changed so much in this area. Grown up or something. I'm still a goof, but maybe at least the uber-goof. I hope all our investigators get over their struggles. It will not be easy. People have real problems, and life is never as simply as we think, but it could be if we just followed the Lord in everything. Gave all. 

Note: I am healthy again! Victory! I have normal bathroom schedule again during the day! VICTORY IS SWEET! Unless it dirties the bathroom.

We had pizza today I guess. We ate out. Felt really good to sit down with a bunch of missionaries and just eat out. It was like what I used to do at home with friends. Nice to just sit and eat. I mean, a few people were impatient and such but such is the American way hahahahahaa, eh?

Keep on walking! (I guess where you are it is skiing). I guess I have to haha. Thanks for the birthday wishes and all (Tasha, your birthday thing is coming, I just have to find a cool place to take a photo and actually send photos). I forget and then remember about when my birthday is, so people are probably annoyed by how many times I have said how soon it is. Thanks for all your prayers and love always. Mom shared the youth theme I see, and really... asi es. We need to continue on and find Christ. I really like Moroni, and wish an investigator would actually reach his chapters (so I could talk about them!). Maybe we will just assign them to someone.

Be careful with the snow and ice, and never forget I love you all. I will have a new companion tomorrow, another "son" in the mission! Hopefully I am actually cut out for doing this sort of thing. At least I get to see the President tomorrow. Always a great experience, just hearing and seeing the man. WOOOW. I will be sad when he leaves. Im sure Hermana Rodriguez has something to say about my health as well haha. 

Thanks for everything always,
Siempre mi amor y todo mi corazon,
Elder Sullivan

PS The notes from the cousins in the dearelder thing were really funny. I am glad hockey is still running, though I probably dont remember how to skate or anything haha.

Jan 6th Post - Welcome to 2014


Hey familia, FELIZ AÑO Y TODOOOOOOOO! Tengan buen animo!

So Im sorry again about no pictures and so no birthday note to Tasha yet................. ITS COMING. Eventually. I am glad that your trip to Mexico was so cool and everything and you guys had fun with all your friends. And the food! A guy in our ward just became a missionary as of today and he is going to Mexico on his mission. We told him he was going to eat super well haha. Otherwise things have been normalish. Elder Diaz is doing well and so am I. 

The baptisms fell through, but we really feel that it was for a reason. There was this whole complex situation thing but now the until recently baptism candidate can really become a true convert, because they have this chance to experience the atonement. I hope they really can do it and repent and stuff. Really good investigator. The other one not baptized... we dont really know what happened other than they left? I suppose we will find out. Really special to share with them anyway even if they didnt get baptized and I really hope they can figure it all out. Im pretty sure they will. 

So we felt good again after the treatment for bacteria and parasites. So we think we are okay. We kind of confirmed it today with the doctor at the CCM, where he told us that the things we had were quistes (its a spanish word, something like stomach dwelling bacteria or something) and he said if we werent symptomatic the quistes would just leave. I mean, we probably killed them anyway, but everything is fairly normal again! YEAHH! Victory and all that.

So our recent lessons have been fairly... rough? For a little while we werent really feeling the Spirit in lessons until we were way too far in the lessons, but we sort of figured it out and are back to being good and sincere with teaching. But wow everyone is having serious problems. We have had heart attacks in families, people with problems with the commandments, people just missing church and a whole host of PROBLEMS. But, it seems to have really humbled everyone and really opened them up to feel the Spirit. At least, we hope that is what they do and dont turn away. We are working with that right now. It is really special to share with peoples problems though, and truly help them. I mean, there isnt all that much comfort to give to people in sin and sorrow other than the Gospel, Gods love and our love. It really works though. People really get touched by the Spirit in their difficulty, in their weakness. I guess thats why we have weakness. 

So its a new year! Happy new year! Glad you spent it with friends and had a good time. Mexicano partying reminds me of here. We had another set of Elders in our house to enjoy new years with food with our neighbours, the Mercados, and watch a Christmas movie that was actually fairly good, Mr Krugers Christmas. Apparently it was approved by Zone Leaders, but que se yo? Anyway, it was super cool to have an awesome new years. The stake party went super late, we didnt go at all, but apparently it began at like 11 and went till 6 in the morning. I was asleep. We did stay up for a bit though, and because our house is on a hill, we saw all around the city all the lights, and especially the fireworks! The whole capital was alight with fireworks everywhere. People were just shooting them in the streets. The big parks also had huge festival kind of things where a lot of fireworks were shooting. We were up on the roof to see it. Really cool. Dominicans sure party late though haha. We were amazed at how long people were up.

Well, everything is really good. I dont know if I already said I finished the book of mormon in spanish last week or something. Super neat! I really like reading and speaking in spanish. Learning so many different little quirks in spanish that are really important from Elder Diaz and just the way he speaks and such.

My new topic in the book of mormon is really focused on the nature of God and Jesus Christ. Really searching them out. I discovered lately with the investigators that really a lot of them have obtained the knowledge of the gospel, but not really the spirit. They need to get to know Christ and our Heavenly Father, and so our invitations have been really focused on that lately. People are figuring it out though, and I hope we can work harder to help everyone. Our new goals are real conversion and working more with the ward to get the programs rolling and in the work. Its been a little lacking as of late with the ward. But its been real special, even if this was a fairly tough time in the mission, I am glad lots of things happened. Really getting to know more about Christ, and i hope I can share that with more people.

Querida familia, I hope everything continues well and that everyone is still found well with health and love and blessings. Never forget that the Lord knows all, knows us personally and we really need to turn to him, especially in moments of difficulty. Nothing else brings true comfort. It has been a speical experience to share with other families about my family, and how we are united in ways they do not yet understand. But they will, if they choose to.

Siempre con mi amor,
Elder Sullivan
PS Sorry I couldnt translate in Mexico, they would think I am weird though probably. DR is kind of like the Bronx of the Spanish world haha.

Note or PS or whatever its called, Did you guys speak any spanish in Mexico at all?

PS PS thing, I am glad the sailing went really well! I miss the ocean quite a bit haha. Have a safe trip home!

Dec 30th Letter

Hey, feliz navidad de nuevo y todo! Les extraño mucho (I miss you lots). It was nice to talk with you all over skype and yes we were very grateful to the members who let us use their equipment. It was a lot better than trying to use an internet center (of which almost none were open anyway). 

So I suppose I can tell you about my health right away. We are fine ish now! We preach normal and everything again and it is great to preach. Makes me feel so much better. I have a new spanish word for you guys to learn, estreñimiento. It means constipation haha. We are having that problem a little as of right now. Well, at least for us. We are used to frequent bathroom usage, and it has really slowed down. Oh well. So we do have a parasite of some kind that they said wasnt overly dangerous and apparently ¨numerous bacteria¨. So the assistants said we better feed that zoo in our stomachs hahaaha. Anyway, that was the test. We are now on this natural treatment with garlic and carrot mix. We took it the day before at night and WOOOOOOWWW it BURRRNNNSSS!!! So we ground up the two things and strained the juice and drank it. It actually tastes fine (maybe even good) but wow when it enters your system... we had to sit down for a good 10 minutes trying not to fall over. Wow it is a killer. So we took it and we have to take it again today and maybe in another two days, and with the last treatment we take a laxative to clean the system. Supposedly that should take care of everything. I believe it now with the way that drink made us feel. 

I am glad you guys had a great christmas and everything. We are enjoying ours now a lot more. We are even having baptisms this week of some investigators Elder Diaz was teaching. Wow they are so ready. The one woman has legitametly investigated the church. She is almost done the book of mormon, is reading doctrine and covenants and has a bunch of awesome scriptures memorized. Wow. A REAL investigator. And her faith is crazy strong. It is impossible not to feel. We hope it pushes her lazy brother into action haha. There are three of them that live in the house, all investigating. The one sister and her cousin are getting baptized this week, while the brother is still kind of lagging. The two leech of of the one sister. She brings home all the bacon. And WOW the live in a nice house. With really cool stuff and its really nicely painted I think its nicer than ours. Of just the one sister´s pay. She has a military job or something that pays super well, so they are all set. 

Anyway, it is super cool to teach with Elder Diaz. His investigators understand things so well, and his teaching is really in depth with a goal of understanding, spiritually and in terms of their knowledge. We have really figured out the importance of telling people about the importance of dispensacions of the Gospel. That they need to understand the importance of prophets and how everything really works. It is super awesome to actually be doing a really good job of teaching. Now we just need to shorten the lessons with people haha. People have too much time on their hands around here (even though they tell us they dont. LIES). 

I still cant imagine snow very well anymore, espeically with the weather heating back up again (I guess our time of ¨cold¨is over). Dique. Sorry you dont have a spanish translator yet in Mexico. But I would probably just offend them anyway with al my Dominican. I probably speak Dominican and not Spanish. Bad me.

I still need to write a birthday thing to Tasha, SORRRYY. Being sick really stinks. We finally cleaned the super nasty flithy house today. And it looks so good. We actually filled bags of just all the garbage that was sitting on the floor.

Dont worry about me not getting enough nutrition. I get too much. I am getting so fat right now. I suppose sometime I will send a picture of my fat self. We have this funny investigator (he works out and stuff so he is not very fat) who always calls me ¨gordito¨now. Means little fat guy. Haha. I laugh and call him gordo, and always poke his belly. People have taken a liking to hitting my belly. Maybe because its so fat now. Never thought I would see the day. Better start working out again. Oh well its fun to hang out with all the investigators. I told the guy who works out he has to read the book of mormon while he is lifting weights. Lift spiritually in one hand and the weight in the other. I am pretty sure the book is too heavy for him anyway hes so gordo. Haha. 

I finally finished the book of mormon in spanish. It was super cool to do, and I feel like I learned more from it in spanish than in english. Really learned that our purpose in life is really just to become more like God. That we are to do His work. And if we arent really willing to do it here, well then, we dont have to do it in heaven either. We dont have to be exalted if we dont want to. But if we really want to have exaltation, we have to become more like God, get to know who he is, all that he knows. It is really something special to do, and something I am really learning in the mission. Cool things to learn from the book of mormon and such. I get to start again now (yeah!). I really like reading in spanish and speaking it. Way more fun than english. Hopefully I havent lost too much of my spanish from being sick for so long. I have noticed Im not as comfortable speaking as I was before dengue. Probably a blessing since I was teaching alone. Anyway, life continues.

Thanks for all the things you sent. The japanese things make me really happy. But most especially is the love of my family that I carry with me. I always feel so proud to be able to share my family with people here. I keep a picture taped in my book of mormon to show people. They always comment on how beautiful my family is. And how white dad is. And how Christina is definitely 25 and Tasha 17. And that mom is definitely chinese haha. But they really notice how happy everyone is, and I know just like the picture our happiness is sealed. It is a great feeling. I hope sometime soon I can help people to have the same joy I see in our family, in my dear friend Javier and lately my friends I read about in the scriptures. Dont worry about and such I am doing fine, and we will be just alright. Dont worry about the parasites and bacteria, this stuff we are doing literally kills everything in the digestive system, hence we dont just drink a ton of it all ot once haha. But as the scriptures say, ¨Sed limpios los que llevan los vasos del Senor¨ ¨Be ye clean who bear the vessels of the Lord¨. So we better get rid of those bacteria I guess haha. Thanks for being my family!

Siempre mi amor,
Elder Sullivan

PS I have a new favourite hymn. In spanish its called Siembra Gozo. In english I believe it is called Scatter Sunshine. It may be kind of a goofy hymn and all, but you guys should make the wards all sing it sometime. Its kind of funny and stuff. Merry Christmas, and when I can send pictures I will send Tasha a birthday thing with a picture of my fatness for her to put up on a wall or something.

PSS So I wanted to paint this picture of Elder Diaz and I being sick at the same time. We were trying to study this one time. And then I was all like ¨Loco, I think I am going to die. I need to go to the bathroom¨. ¨Oh man, I do too¨. And from then on, we just lay in bed dying side by side hahahahahaah. Sometimes we would lean over to each other and say ¨Hey, como esta?¨¨Bien, yo creo.¨Yeah. It was a good christmas. We are super close companions now though!

Dec 21st Letter - Post Dengue

Hola familia mia,

So I hope everything is still great. I am glad the office was all nice to you guys and stuff and sorry for not writing until tuesday, and writing this week extremely late. This transfer has been superbly hectic and a little overwhelming in far too many aspects.

Right now I am fine and stuff. I didnt write because I had dengue for a couple days, but I recovered a lot faster than normal and I am doing just fine again (and really happy to be able to leave the house and work again). So really sorry about not writing. Dengue is a pretty deabilitating thing. I kind of just laid in bed for a few days with a fever drinking this rehydration liquid stuff called suero. And then to end I got a rash and now I appear to be fine. Yeaaah. So really good times here. I have only had 2 days of full proselyting this entire transfer so far. 

I guess I should tell you my companion isnt with me anymore and now it is just Elder Diaz and I battling in Ivan Guzman, a two missionary district! So I suppose times have been rough but we look forward to working here. We are thinking this may last the rest of this transfer until they figure out something to get us back up to regular numbers with companions and such. It has been reallllyyy strange but the president was really nice about everything and handled it really well.

So sorry about everything but it has been a super weird and different time around here. I feel great now (before no, but now yeah). Thanks for everything and your patience and love. I hope everything goes really well for the rest of the week. Thanks for the packages (I recieved the other one too) and I am enjoying them now (when I had dengue, no haha). 

Ok so the important bits. We are figuring out how to do a skype thing on wednesday (christmas day). So, we have to find some computer to do the skyping on with decent internet and other conditions (which we think has all been done). You need to send me our skype adress in email so I can call. I will be calling probably around 3, but it would be best if you were available anytime from 2 until 4 (that is my time). So yeah, 2 to 4. I believe your time difference is 4 hours or something because of daylight savings. Im not entirely sure on exact details. Anyway, 2 to 4. I need the skype address with as much information as possible to find it without too much trouble. You will want the best internet connection possible on your end, since mine may not be all that great. Thanks so much! That will happen on christmas day (its our new pday for that week). 

Con amor siempre,

Elder Sullivan